December 7, 2008
One thing I learned after going to school all the way through medical school: Test taking is a learned skill and you get higher scores the more and better you practice. Looking back, I wish I had know this before taking the SAT and ACT as a high school student. A few practice tests and some directed technique drills would have easily raised my scores.
If you have a teenager who plans to take these tests for college entrance, start early and integrate a bit of test taking skills into your homeschool curriculum.
Check out MSN Encarta’s site with tips, resources, and links to ACT/SAT test taking strategies.
Although the overall picture of your college applying child is important, a few more points on their test scores can only help open more doors.
Posted under Homeschool Test Taking
Hello, Misty.
Parents may also want to consider taking advantage of a new technique to help children increase their problem-solving ability. The great thing about this approach is that it helps generally and isn’t confined to the SATs.
As full disclosure, my company publishes brain training software, so I would encourage parents to do their own research and reach their own conclusions.
The training to look for is called dual n-back working-memory training, and it was devised by University researchers from Michigan and Bern. To cut down the research time, here’s a link to a bunch of news stories that covered the study: Working-Memory Improves Problem-Solving Ability — News Coverage
Best wishes; great blog!
Martin Walker
http://www.mindsparke.com